Indigenous trailblazer is one of our greats

Sitting in her Bribie Island kitchen and chatting to her husband, Pearl Duncan would fit anyone’s image of a relaxed grandma.

But her calm countenance belies a strength and steely resolve which saw her become the nation’s first tertiary-trained indigenous teacher and later, a trailblazer in the campaign to improve indigenous education.

Pearl has dedicated her life to not only improving education, but increasing participation in education; first at the Aboriginal schools she worked at and later at a national level as a member of the National Aboriginal Education Committee.

And she is yet to slow down or stop spreading her message that education is the ticket to a better life.

Her dedication and passion was rewarded when she was named one of 2008’s Queensland Greats by premier Anna Bligh on Friday.

It is the latest in a long line of awards and tributes, which includes having a teaching scholarship named in her honour, but Pearl remains refreshingly modest about her accomplishments.

For her, it has always been about the message.

“I became a member of the National Aboriginal Education Committee in the 1970s,” she said.

“At the time a report had been released which showed that the education of Aboriginal children was depressingly inadequate.

“They were being taught by untrained teachers in ill-equipped third world-type schools.

“The government of the time was shamed by this dreadful result and a real movement for change began.

“Qualified teachers were placed in the schools, the schools themselves were improved, the equipment was upgraded. Aboriginal education became a real catch cry.”

Only two decades before this call for change, Pearl had witnessed the deficiencies first hand as a teacher at an indigenous school in north Queensland, and later the Torres Strait. “Way back in 1950 and 51, I would have been very naive and gone along with the attitudes of the time. I would have accommodated myself with the way things were. It is only through experience that it is revealed to you that things are not as they should be,” she said.

“But even then I realised the lessons were not culturally relevant to indigenous children. The Queensland readers in those days were shocking. They would speak of snow storms and people perishing in blizzards.

“Children in the Torres Strait had no concept of snow or what it means to be really cold. So I would change things and use their own environment to teach them.”

While pleased with her latest honour, Pearl said it was her mother who promoted the benefits and power of education to her as a young girl. “Mum influenced me to work hard at school and she said that education was my ticket out of the community we were living in.

“It was my ticket, I did get out and accomplish what I wanted and I still firmly believe education is still the ticket out of anywhere for anyone out there.”